Friends are the family that you choose for yourself
by G30.xo
Summary: The arrival of a new girl at St Hearts coincides with the allocation of a new mission. Coincidence? One-shot. Word of warning - sorry Toneisha shippers!


This is my first finished fanfiction, and the first I have uploaded. If you like, or have any issues, please, please review! ~MIHighObsessive :)

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own MI High!**

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 **TOM'S P.O.V**

 _I'm running, fleeing from the evil. I'm powerless as the Dark Wizard raises his staff, ready to kill. There's no sign of my team – this is my mission, and I've failed. There's a blinding light as the Dark Wizard's staff hits the floor, and then…_

 _Nothing._

I wake with a start. So many times I've had that dream, and there's nothing I can do about it. I enjoy working secretly for M.I.9, but sometimes it just gets too much. Felicity, Roly and Preston have asked me countless times why I'm friends with Dan, Aneisha and Keri, even when Zoe was here. I don't even know myself sometimes. Dan is just the typical, popular guy that all the geeks and nerds are jealous of, and Keri learns quickly, a character I could only dream about possessing. Really, Aneisha is the only one that I'd be friends with without M.I.9.

We arrive at school at the same time, just like normal. Dan looks at me, and I survey the playground, looking for unfamiliar faces. Normally there aren't any, but today I spot someone, and that's when remember the job Mr Flatley gave me, which I hadn't told Keri, Aneisha or Dan about yet.

"Ah, Thomas, there you are," was Mr Flatley's greeting as he rushed up to me. "This is Georgia, she's new. Please look after her for today, there's a good lad."

"Okay, Mr Flatley," I said, taking in Georgia's appearance. She wasn't wearing any make up, contrary to the other two females stood behind me, watching, her skirt was full length, and she'd made no effort to modify the school uniform. She must be a geek, like me.

"Hi, I'm Georgia Taylor, nice to meet you," Georgia introduced. I could see Dan was sussing out whether she was being sarcastic or genuinely friendly.

"Hi, I'm Tom, as you already know, and these are my friends, Keri, Aneisha and Dan." I say the last word through gritted teeth. I never like admitting that Dan is my friend.

"Can you show me round, please?" Georgia asked. I'd already forgotten she was new.

After Georgia's grand tour, led by Dan (obviously), we had to go to lessons. Mr Flatley and Mrs King had set up IQ tests for us all. We'd been told this by Frank, who was part of this operation. They were still true IQ tests, just your results could be seen by M.I.9.

In a sea of stressed faces, Georgia was the only positive person. She came and sat down next to me. Of course she would, she's Taylor, and I'm Tupper. I could see that we were working through the test at the same speed. We finished at exactly the same time. I looked over at her, and she smiled. We pressed 'Show IQ' simultaneously. 150. Good, I'm consistent. I looked over at Georgia's screen. 150 too! I checked the room: Roly had 25, Lady J had 40, Dan got 125, Aneisha got 140 and Keri got 148. She really does learn quickly.

At lunch, Georgia came and sat with us. We were deep in a conversation about creating fool-proof hardware when our communicators started flashing. Aneisha gave me an "I'll handle this" look.

"Oh, sorry Georgia, but I've just remembered that all four of us have a detention with Frank, the caretaker," Aneisha explained to Georgia.

"Ah, okay," said Georgia. For some reason, I felt bad lying to her, but it was necessary. As we walked out, Georgia gave me a cute little wave, so I waved back.

When we arrived at HQ, we knew that whatever we'd been called for was a serious matter, as Stella was there as well as Frank.

"Agents," she said, "we've had reports of a KORPS spy on the loose. We're trusting you to find them and bring them here to be detained. We have no clue about age or gender. Be careful, agents."

As we go back up to the school, Dan felt it was the right time to bring up Georgia.

"Maybe she's the KORPS spy," he said. "After all, she's new, you've only known her 5 minutes, and they don't know what the spy is like."

"Shut it, Dan," I found myself saying, even though inside, I was agreeing with him.

"Oooh, sticking up for your girlfriend now, are we?" he provoked.

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"Oh, come off it. We've all seen the way you look at her. I'm just trying to protect you, you know, like _friends_ do?"

"Guys, break it up," says Keri. "We don't want only three of us leaving this lift, do we?" I reside into silent anger. What forced me to argue with the one person in school who alone can boost my popularity by 150% and that actually likes me? He's right – I haven't known Georgia that long.

When we get back into the playground, I notice that Georgia is sat on a bench, talking on her phone. Seems I'm not the only one that notices. I can see by the look in Dan's eyes that he has a plan. He looks at Keri, and she nods. It's like they share a telepathic connection or something. Keri goes and sits on the end of the bench, and pretends to be playing on her phone. When Georgia gets up and walks off, Keri comes back.

"I only caught snippets of her conversation," said Keri. "Does it alarm you if I told you that she said 'He's mine' and 'I'm so close to getting in, I've just got to give that one little push'?"

It alarmed Dan so much that he dragged us with him to rant at Georgia.

"Hi, Georgia? Can I ask you something?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure! Fire away!" she replied, giggling slightly (and cutely, I must add).

"I was… well, we were wondering where you'd been to school before coming here."

"Oh, I've been home-schooled for the majority of my life," she said, shocking us all.

"Why? And what made you want to come to school?" Aneisha asked, getting in before Dan, who was evidently annoyed.

"Well, I wanted a change, and my parents agreed, saying I'd been anti-social for so long that I should start making at least a few friends."

"Oh, okay," I said, and started walking away. Dan grabbed my blazer sleeve and pulled me back.

"What?" I asked, when Dan was giving me a look that bluntly said 'you traitor'. "Can't we leave her alone? We've interrogated her enough."

"Urgh, fine," said Dan, admitting defeat for once.

We were caught up in M.I.9 work for the next few weeks, and I felt worse and worse lying to Georgia, who I'd gotten really close to. I had to tell her what was going on. I just had to.

I walked into school early the next morning, going through what I was going to say to Georgia in my head, when I heard Dan. He was confronting Georgia! My poor, innocent Georgia, who'd done nothing to anyone!

"…So you just leave Tom alone, okay? He'll never fall for your schemes and tricks. You can go tell your boss that you've failed, because you know what? You really have." I couldn't understand why Dan was doing this. I decided I had one option – go over there.

"Dan, leave my girlfriend alone! What has she done to you?" I fumed, putting my arm around Georgia, who was on the verge of tears.

"You know what she is, Tom. Or has she made you forget? You've already forgotten who your friends are."

"I have no idea what is going on," Georgia half-whispered, half-sobbed into me. "I walked into school, and he was there waiting. He shouted at me as soon as he saw me. Something about being a spy for… Korps, I think it was?"

"What's going on?" said a voice from behind me. I turned around, to see Aneisha and Keri looking puzzled.

"Georgia, can you give us a minute?" Keri asked.

"Um… okay. Just as long as…"

"Don't worry," I said. "Dan won't verbally attack you again."

"Phew," she said, walking away.

"So? What's going on?" Aneisha said as soon as Georgia was out of earshot.

"Dan has it fixed in his mind that Georgia is the spy, so he confronted her before we got here. I needed to speak to Georgia, that's why I was in early. Dan would've finished ranting before then," I said.

"Typical. We don't actually know that Georgia isn't the spy though," Aneisha replied.

"Surely she would have owned up, instead of saying she didn't know what was going on?"

"Fair point,"

That moment, Georgia came up to us.

"Tom? Can I speak to you please? Alone?" she said. I knew that she'd been crying – her eyes were all red and blotchy.

"Sure," I said. Keri and Aneisha nodded and walked away.

"The thing is… I know what Dan is going on about," she said, sighing. "I know that you work for M.I.9, I know that you have to find the KORPS agent, and I know that Dan thinks it's me."

"What? How?" I said. "No… you can't be… you can't be!"

"I'm not, but my brother Spencer is. That's why M.I.9 recruited me. They knew someone, but not me, in my vast family was a KORPS spy, so I was set the task of finding out who. However, when I proved to be more of a techie, they brought you in."

"So that's why you came here, instead of being home-schooled!"

"Yep. I lied to my parents though. I had to. Please don't tell Dan, Aneisha or Keri. Next time you go down to HQ, I'll be there."

"Wow, okay," I said with a smile. Georgia ran off just at the same time as Keri, Aneisha and Dan came over, and our communicators started flashing.

"What are you grinning so madly about, Tom?" Dan asked.

"You'll see," I replied. The lift doors opened, and we saw Stella and Frank deep in conversation.

"Team," said Frank when he spotted us, "meet your new team member. Tom – yes, they're a techie." The chair in the middle of Stella and Frank turned, met with a collective gasp from the others.

"Georgia? But… she's the KORPS spy!" exclaimed Dan.

"Tell him what you told me, Georgia," I said, grinning.

"M.I.9 knew that someone in my family was a KORPS spy, but not me, so they recruited me and set me the task of finding who. However, when I was more into the tech, they brought you guys in." she said.

"So Dan, that's why you don't go accusing people!" I said, giving Georgia a hug.

"Georgia… can you forgive me?" Dan asked.

"Why not? I have the info, so we kind of need to get along," she replied.

"So… who is it?" Keri asked.

"My twin, Spencer," Georgia said, sighing slightly. "He starts here today, because Mum and Dad thought it was unfair that I go to school and he gets home-schooled."

"So, how do we get him here, then?" Aneisha said.

"How about Georgia offers to show him around, brings him to the caretaker's cupboard, where we will be, we blindfold him, come down and, hey presto! One captured KORPS spy!" Dan suggested. We all thought that this was a good idea, so we went along with it.

At the end of the day, we were celebrating another successful mission.

"…And then I was like, BAM! And he fell! Flat on his face!" said Georgia, re-living the mission.

"Was that the first time, or after he got back up?" I asked, putting my arm around her and laughing.

"Tom…" Dan said.

"What?" I replied. "I love her! She loves me too!"

"You got that right!" Georgia laughed, standing on her tiptoes to lightly plant a kiss on my cheek.

"Beautiful," Stella said, as she and Frank walked in. "I wanted to personally thank you for your success in this mission. Georgia, I am pleased to formally welcome you to M.I.9."

"How's Spencer? Do Mum and Dad know about him?" Georgia asked.

"He wants to see you, actually, and yes, your parents have been informed. Tom, will you go with her to see Spencer?"

"Okay," I replied, so Georgia and I walked down the corridor. Georgia rushed up to Spencer's cell.

"Bro? You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah… look, Georgia, I'm sorry. I really wish I hadn't been a KORPS spy now. I'm separated from the love of my life, you, and I don't get to be a teenager. KORPS has taken my life from me," he said. Georgia was crying. "Tom?"

"Spencer? What?" I asked.

"Promise me that a, you will look after Georgia and b, that she can come and visit me."

"Sure."

So we made our way back, a happy, tearful Georgia refusing to let go of me. I wanted to keep hold of this moment. Take a picture, frame it. Who knows what the future will bring? The best thing is to keep hold of what you have, most importantly, your friends. After all, friends are the family that you choose for yourself.


End file.
